by Vinny Messana
Winning against your crosstown school is always a point of pride. So, when Smithtown West won the first two games of the series, it was crucial Smithtown East responded with a victory.
That’s just what they did, coming away with a 5-0 shutout. Lafayette-bound John Marti smacked a big two-run double in the bottom of the fourth and their junior pitcher, Mike Ruggerio, fired 5.2 shutout innings to secure his second win of the season.
“It was a huge mental victory for us,” said Marti. “He (Nicholas Trabacchi) came out with some good stuff the first time we saw him and we were happy to learn from our mistakes. We still have to beat West one more time to tie the series but as of right now, we’re pumped,” he said.
East came out with a game plan against West’s ace Nicholas Trabacchi. They forced him to throw 33 pitches in the first inning, drawing three walks. Despite not scoring a run, they certainly made him work.
After navigating through trouble in the second by striking out Ruggerio, Trabacchi’s command issues finally caught up to him.
After Marti led off with a single to left field, he advanced to third on a double by Rizzo. Marti showed off his speed when he scored on a wild pitch that got away from the catcher to get East on the board 1-0. Rizzo, who had advanced to third on the wild pitch, came around to score on a sac fly to make it 2-0.
Ruggerio ran into a bit of trouble in the top of the fourth when Stony Brook-bound Nick Grande and hit Trabacchi in the front elbow. After inducing a comebacker to Mike Zito and striking out Anthony Amato, he was the beneficiary of a stellar diving play by Shawn Kelly in the center field to save two runs from scoring.
East broke it open in the fourth inning, when Marti drove in two runs with a well-struck double to left field to increase the lead to 4-0. They added one more run on an RBI single to left by Rizzo, which scored the hustling Marti.
With the victory, East improved to 6-2 on the season while West’s eight-game win streak to begin the season ended.
East will be back in action today against Hills East, while West will travel to Riverhead.
